MPEG Editor

[spaceghost]

Is there and mpeg editor that will retain the btv descriptive data in the mpeg after editing so that btv 4 will still see the program descrption, etc.? I have been playing with womble - I like it but I am losing the descriptive data. I would like to avoid rekeying the data in the btv web interface if at all possible. Is there some setting in btv or womble I need to look at?

[Rich A]

Originally Posted by spaceghost

Is there and mpeg editor that will retain the btv descriptive data in the mpeg after editiiing so that btv 4 will still see the program descrption, etc.? I have been playing with womble - I like it but I am losing the descriptive data. I would like to avoid rekeying the data in the btv web interface if at all possible. Is there some setting in btv or womble I need to look at?

I have tried many. And there doesn't seem to be any that do. There is a plug-in for BTV that chops the commercials out automatically. Never tried it. Look in the BTV downloads section. Personally I love Womble (been using it for years) The fact that it now accepts the BTV *.xml chapter lists really automates things nicely.

I can remove the commercials in the typical one hour tv show in about 90 seconds. AND that includes scrubbing through the video to insure there aren't any missed spots etc.

I find this to be the most accurate way to do this and I'm not too interested in the show's information as those edited mpegs are used to make archival DVDs.

[Pocket8s]

I use VideoRedo and it works great. It has a very short learning curve that gets you quickly editing out commercials and what not. It also retains the Snapstream info. The downside is that it's not free but I would say that it is money well spent for the ease of use and functionality. I hope this helps

P8

[Mamba]

>remove the commercials....in about 90 seconds.

Just curious...is this a purist preference or are you doing this for archiving/remote viewing purposes? SmartSkip is great and my thumb needs the exercise...editing each show or even using CutWatch is way too much work for moi'.

[Rich A]

Originally Posted by Mamba

>remove the commercials....in about 90 seconds.

Just curious...is this a purist preference or are you doing this for archiving/remote viewing purposes? SmartSkip is great and my thumb needs the exercise...editing each show or even using CutWatch is way too much work for moi'.

Since I archive these shows to use as my DVD show collection, I have to take a "purist" road. I cannot afford to have an automatic cut depend on the data supplied by the BTV Chapter generator. Although it's one of the most accurate, there ARE occasions where a commercial can be missed or some of the show is missing. This would be terrible when watching the finished DVD playback to find out 5 minutes of the show were missing or have the tail end of a commercial pop up. Plus the beginning and end of "every" recorded show always has some commercial content that isn't found by the typical chapter cut. That is because the recording STARTS in the middle of a commercial segment and ENDS in the middle of a commercial segment. So if you want a nice "professional like" DVD rendition you have to trim those sections manually. For the couple minutes needed to edit them perfectly, it's worth it for me. If I were just re-saving the finished mpeg back to the BTV folder for viewing within BTV, then I wouldn't even bother to spend the time to trim the front and end. I'd just parse them through Womble and be done with it. In that case I could live with the small 15 seconds or so of commercial content at the beginning and end of each show.

Since I don't need the show information for DVD creation it's not a big deal to loose it. HOWEVER, I do have the Womble's author's ear and many suggestions I've made to have have been done. I'm sure I can get him to look at how and why the mpeg information is being removed and correct it. That would be very nice to have if one were keeping those shows in the BTV environment.

[Mamba]

..'K...figured you must be archiving. Womble is a great tool..used it to trim video for some home movie/slideshow DVDs in the past. If you can influence the feature set I'm sure many here would appreciate your help.

[nanook105]

Originally Posted by Rich A

Since I don't need the show information for DVD creation it's not a big deal to loose it. HOWEVER, I do have the Womble's author's ear and many suggestions I've made to have have been done. I'm sure I can get him to look at how and why the mpeg information is being removed and correct it. That would be very nice to have if one were keeping those shows in the BTV environment.

Count me in on this. I have several hundred shows that I want to edit but haven't because I want to keep the BTV show info

[Ivo-G]

Originally Posted by spaceghost

Is there and mpeg editor that will retain the btv descriptive data in the mpeg after editiiing so that btv 4 will still see the program descrption, etc.? I have been playing with womble - I like it but I am losing the descriptive data. I would like to avoid rekeying the data in the btv web interface if at all possible. Is there some setting in btv or womble I need to look at?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the descriptive data in the Snapstream database itself? AFAIK no descriptive data gets stored in the MPEG file itself.

[Rich A]

Originally Posted by Ivo-G

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the descriptive data in the Snapstream database itself? AFAIK no descriptive data gets stored in the MPEG file itself.

I don't know for sure, BUT it could be that the POINTER to that external data is in one of the mpeg headers. There are many areas in the mpeg header that are not used normally and available for various information generated by the programmer. I would think the entire show information would indeed be stored somewhere else, with some part of the mpeg header containing a link/pointer to it.

I have something I can use to examine the BTV mpeg's structure. I'll have a look at it to see if there is anything that looks like that.

Normally your typical mpeg editor just ignores unknown program streams and other stuff that it really doesn't need during encoding etc. The result is that it isn't saved when the new mpeg is compiled. There IS a lot of room in those headers for additional information .. but I just never looked at it in depth to see what, if anything SnapStream is adding.

[ThickHead]

There are a few BTV addons/utilities around that can extract and restore BTV's episode data... Lee Cole's "AutoXvid" does this and whole lot more as a Showsqueeze alternative...

[addon] AutoXvid (November 12 Update)

...and I see Deuce911's "BTV Show Handler" can do it as well, although I haven't personally used it.

New Utility: BTV Show Handler

They both use something called "Metadataextractor.exe" to do this.

[MJC]

Why don't you copy the XML file by the same name of the show to the DVD as well? Set up a drive letter in BTW that points to the DVD.

Then, when you wish to play back the show, simply load the DVD, point to the drive and you'll have the show information. Ads can be skipped by pressing the up arrow key on the remote.

Sure, it only works on BTV and you still have the bloat of the commercials, but it's a quick way to archive the shows with the show data.

MJC

[Rich A]

Where is this "xml" file? You aren't referring to the chapters xml file are you?

[richt]

The information is stored in the BTV MPEG file itself. If you edit the file you loose the info. The folks at VideoRedo added code to their app to retain the info after editing. The utility mentioned by Thickhead can extract the info to an XML file and then re-insert it after editing. While it worked, that was too much work for me. I spent the money on VideoRedo.

[DonK]

Another VideoReDo user here... I swear by it, especially the project mode that will pre mark smartskip for you.

[pdaughe]

Originally Posted by nanook105

Count me in on this. I have several hundred shows that I want to edit but haven't because I want to keep the BTV show info

Brad, VideoRedo DOES retain the show information stored in an additional block at the end of the mpeg. It also processes BTV's smartskip files. It's great and easy to use.